Recently, the global media was shocked by the news that Taylor Swift’s three-night The Eras Tour concert at Ernst Happel Stadion (Vienna, Austria) was canceled when a terrorist plan to attack this location was revealed.
The Associated Press news agency reported: the main suspect in the case has fully confessed to the plan, affirming that they wanted to “kill as many people as possible outside the concert venue”.
Officials said the 19-year-old suspect, originally from North Macedonia, was the mastermind, who had pledged allegiance to the extremist Islamic State (ISIS). The head of Austria’s State Security and Intelligence Service, Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, said the main suspect wanted to use knives or homemade explosives to attack Taylor Swift fans outside the stadium in a bid to cause a mass casualty event at the concerts.
Austrian police said they expected each concert to attract around 65,000 spectators, not including the 15,000 spectators standing outside the stadium each night. Taylor Swift’s three concerts in Vienna, if held, could attract around 240,000 spectators, further demonstrating the seriousness of the incident if the terrorist attack actually occurred.
Taylor Nation, Taylor Swift’s official team, has announced that three shows in Austria will be canceled. The full statement reads: “Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in Vienna has been canceled based on official government confirmation of planned terrorist attacks. With the government’s confirmation of a planned terrorist attack targeting the Ernst-Happel-Stadion, we have no choice but to cancel the three scheduled shows for the safety of everyone. All tickets will be refunded within 10 business days!”
It can be seen that, with the forced cancellation of the show due to the dangerous situation, Taylor Swift and her team also suffered a significant loss when they had to refund all tickets that had been sold to buyers within 10 working days. All tickets for the 3 shows in Vienna were sold out long ago, with the estimate from the Austrian police mentioned above, Taylor Swift’s team had to refund tickets to nearly 200,000 spectators.
Previously, a source close to the production team of The Eras Tour confirmed to Variety that the average revenue of a show is around 14 – 17 million USD, meaning that 1 show Taylor Swift earns between 353 – 429 billion VND. This means that Taylor Swift’s 3 canceled shows in Vienna could cause the team to lose up to 51 million USD, but the safety of the audience has been put first.
Many audiences from all over the world had flocked to Vienna, ready to attend The Eras Tour before the terrorist news appeared. The Austrian government also made many moves to appease international audiences who had already purchased tickets to come here by opening many tourist attractions for free to those who own tickets to The Eras Tour . The Taylor Swift fan community in this country also organized many parties, events, and parades to respond to the spirit of The Eras Tour, which was unfortunately canceled.